Project Breckenridge

When it comes to community projects, Neoma Laken, 68, is a human dynamo and living legend. Over the last decade or so, she has changed the face of Breckenridge, Minn. (pop. 3,559).

Thanks to her persistence, Breckenridge boasts green parks, a festival performance stage, historic site signs, and a monument marking the headwaters of the Red River of the North. Bettering Breckenridge matters a lot to Laken, who considers her community activism hereditary. She’s following the example set by her parents.

“My mom said there was no choice but for me to be involved,” says Laken, a retired legal secretary who worked for Wilkin County for 42 years, 18 of those as county recorder.

After a bout with ovarian cancer at age 20 when she was given a 20 percent chance of surviving five years, Laken plunged into volunteering. “My church and community became my family,” she says.

Retirement in the early 1990s allowed her time to get involved with Project Breckenridge, a nonprofit organization credited with innovative projects and held up by state tourism officials as a great example of community betterment and marketing.

“We decided there were things we could do to improve our community that no one else was doing,” Laken says.

According to fourth-grade teacher Marlys Haiby, Laken single-handedly made known the location of the Red River of the North headwaters in Breckenridge. In addition, she has written historical pageants and booklets about the region.

Laken smiles about the origin of her book, Explore Historic Breckenridge and Wilkin County: “I got tired of telling people where to find things, so I wrote it all down.”

While she has a passion for history, Breckenridge Mayor Cliff Barth calls her future-oriented. “She has a feel for what it takes to keep our city going forward,” he says.

That forward vision led Laken to get involved in the International Historic Highway 75 King of Trails Coalition. Highway 75 was a majestic trail back in 1917 and 1918, leading from Winnipeg, Canada, to Galveston, Texas. Laken is doing her part to recapture its glory for the benefit of northwestern Minnesota communities.

That includes getting Original King of Trails signs posted locally. When Laken agreed to help the Wilkin County Highway Department update its map, she mentioned her wish to have the signs hung. They now hang on county roads north and south of Breckenridge.

“I guess I’m the last of the horse traders,” she quips.

Laken also teaches Wilkin County history in area classrooms, in hopes that local residents don’t forget their heritage, from early settlers’ tales to the F.E. Murphy Co., which developed early methods for diversified farming from 1920 to 1940 and now is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Not surprisingly, Laken has written a book on F. E. Murphy Co. farms and area agriculture, just one more accomplishment of this energetic woman who also serves as city alderman. When people told her they’d be mad if she didn’t run for the office, she put her name on the ballot—and received the most votes without any campaigning.

“I guess my whole life is my campaign,” Laken says.

Alice M. Vollmar is a freelance writer in Minneapolis.

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